You see, in this world there is one awful thing, and that is that everyone has his reasons.

To the question, ‘Is the cinema an art?’ my answer is, ‘what does it matter?’... You can make films or you can cultivate a garden. Both have as much claim to being called an art as a poem by Verlaine or a painting by Delacroix… Art is ‘making.’ The art of poetry is the art of making poetry. The art of love is the art of making love... My father never talked to me about art. He could not bear the word.

A film director is not a creator, but a midwife. His business is to deliver the actor of a child that he did not know he had inside him.

A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again.

The real hell of life is that everyone has his reasons.

I believe that perfection handicaps cinema.